Looking for recipes for the foods in season in Ontario? This is the place! I aim to hit 80% local produce in my recipes. Find also notes about my experiences as an organic vegetable and fruit gardener and breeder, and visits to growers, processors and vendors of all kinds of good foods of Ontario.

Friday, 7 February 2014

More About Cytoplasmic Male Sterility in Vegetables

I would like to draw your attention to this article about Cell Fusion CMS in vegetables; it should, in my opinion, be read by every grower and eater of vegetables out there.

Editted to Add 10/02/2014: What particularly got my knickers in a knot is the revelation that just about all broccoli sold in the U.S (and by implication Canada) is genetically modified, certainly by international organic standards. That American (and by implication Canadian) organic standards are ignoring this is really distressing to me, and seems completely antithetical to everything organic is supposed to mean.

The great struggle of the last few millenia of human history has been over who owns what, with more and more of what was once our common birthright becoming the possessions of the wealthy, to be bought back by everyone else at the cost of excess toil, deprivation, oppression, illness and shortened lifespans. There have been some victories, but the struggle is never ending and has moved to the level of the genetic make-up of the food we eat and our own bodies.

Read, mark, learn, and dare I say, inwardly digest the words of Andrew Still, who is fighting the good fight here. This is still fairly new information to me, so I am still in that process myself, but would be very interested in hearing peoples' thoughts on this.

Ultimately, the parasitism of the wealthy must fail, if only by its
own bloated overreaching, but its failure will be staggeringly painful
for everyone. Better not to go there in the first place.